SF/F Genre-specific Writing Books

I really liked the one you mentioned by Orson Scott Card. It's got some great genre-specific advice. It's worth a try!

I don't care much for the Orson Scott Card book; a bit too much I disagree with, although there are a few sections where he hits the nail on the head. I'd say anyone writing the genre should read it, but take it with a grain of salt.

Though not specifically about writing, I've read a few books that gave me an interesting new perspective on fantasy/science fiction literature in general, "Rhetorics of Fantasy" by Farah Mendlesohn, "The Tough Guide to Fantasyland" by Diana Wynne Jones, "The Language of the Night" by Ursula K. LeGuin, "Imaginary Worlds" by Lin Carter, and "Red Planets: Marxism and Science Fiction" by Mark Bould and China Miéville.

In my opinion, the biggest strike against OSC's book on its own merits is that roughly half of the information is obsolete. The stuff on structure (MICE quotient, et cetera) is more durable, but the market information hasn't been updated since 1990 and it shows.

The Tough Guide to Fantasyland isn't a writing book per se, but well worth it for entertainment value alone - and you might get an insight or two along the way

Steering the Craft by Ursula LeGuin: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0933377460/?tag=absowrit-20 It's not precisely about genre writing, I would call it much more genre-friendly than the average writing book though as it is written by one of SFFs's greats.

Zen in the Art of Writing by Ray Bradbury -- I love Ray and I love this book--more on the inspirational side of things than the craft side.

It's not coming out for a while, but Jeff Vandermeer is writing one called Shared Worlds/Single Vision that he says is "the ultimate Fantasy/SF writing book". I'm super excited to read it as I think he is rad. I think the genre is due for a new book on writing!
http://www.jeffvandermeer.com/2011/...ence-fiction-or-fantasy-book-youve-ever-read/

But yeah, there are a lot of great blogs with great advice for genre writers. In particular, two AWers: Juliette Wade http://talktoyouniverse.blogspot.com/ and Janice Hardy http://blog.janicehardy.com/ They both have really brilliant advice on writing in general, and SFF in particular. Bibliophile Stalker http://charles-tan.blogspot.com/ always does a great roundup of genre writing blog posts for the week. I also like Book View Cafe Blog, which is a group blog: http://blog.bookviewcafe.com/

David Gerrold's Worlds of Wonder is good -- though if you're looking for something in more of a traditional craft book, you'll be disappointed. I liked the book because it didn't lay down rules -- it showed the possibilities.

Writing books have been a default Christmas gift for me for ages, so I've acquired a rather distressing number of them. Just the SFF ones:

On my shelf
Conceiving the Heavens by Melissa Scott. Focused on SF, but useful for fantasy as well. Has some good thoughts on naming things and on titles, thinking through "what ifs" and so on. Doesn't seem to be very well known, but it's one of the few I still crack open from time to time. I'd recommend it.

Worlds of Wonder by David Gerrold. Mostly SF, also deals with fantasy. Pretty good, as I remember.

The Tough Guide to Fantasyland by Diana Wynne Jones. Not a writing book, but an excellent compendium of clichés.

The Planet Construction Kit and The Language Construction Kit by Mark Rosenfelder. Nice to have, don't know if I really need them.

Worldbuilding by Stephen L. Gillett and Ben Bova, Aliens and Alien Societies by Stanley Schimdt, and The Writer's Guide to Creating a Science Fiction Universe by George Ochoa and Jeffrey Osier. Very useful when I wrote SF, but I have no idea how well these have aged.

Writing Science Fiction and Fantasy edited by Gardner R. Dozois and others, and Writing Fantasy & Science Fiction by Lisa Tuttle. Apparently I've read these, but have no memory of doing so.

The Complete Guide to Writing Fantasy edited by Darin Park and Tom Dullemond (I think it's been republished under a different title). Rather oriented toward Standard Medieval Fantasy. Has a whole chapter on writing fight scenes, can't remember if it's worthwhile or not.

The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference. Again, a bit too focused on Standard Medieval Fantasy for my taste.

From the library
How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy and Science Fiction by J. N. Williamson. Probably horribly outdated, but reading this book was what made me start writing SFF.

Orson Scott Card's book... well, I liked it when I first started writing fantasy, but when I reread it a few years ago it didn't seem very substantial. *shrug*

Le Guin's 'The Language of the Night' helped me a lot. So did Umberto Eco's 'Six Walks in the Fictional Woods'. Donald Maass' how-to books were interesting, but a little too aimed at commercial formulas for my tastes.

I want to second Le Guin's Language of the Night, and also add Delany's Jewel-Hinged Jaw; both are not about writing SF/F but about how books in the genres work, which of course, is useful to writers.

And there's a book by Kate Wilhelm: Storyteller: Writing Lessons and More from 27 Years of the Clarion Writers' Workshop.

It's not SF-nal, exactly, but Stephen King's On Writing is smart, interesting, and practical.

I'm exceedingly impressed by June Casagrande's It was the Best of Sentences, It was the Worst of Sentences: A Writer's Guide to Crafting Killer Sentences--see the top of the AW forums page.

I like The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference for terminology. I recall other parts that were interesting, but I continually go back to it for terminology (names of parts of armor, weapons, military terms, etc.).

I've got that one as well, the bits on society and commerce are quite helpful. The magic stuff, on the other hand, is dire IMO